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In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) we support the Congolese people’s dream to open up a democratic space where they can exercise their rights and build a functional state with laws that guarantee the fair share of benefits from natural resources.
Christian Aid has worked in the DRC since the 1970s. We work on good governance, humanitarian assistance focusing on resilience, from violence to peace, access to (agricultural) markets and gender.
We have built a long-term vision, a reputation for our in-depth knowledge of the country, strong relationships across the country and experience in developing the capacity of partners, especially in advocacy.
Some of our former partners are now independent, continuing to implement long-term projects in difficult conditions even after Christian Aid’s funding has ended, demonstrating the long-lasting effects of our capacity-building activities.
Our aims
- Support civil society organisations to ensure the population participates in decision-making processes, leading to democratic, fair, transparent and viable elections at all levels (local, provincial and national);
- Alleviate suffering and help to save the lives of those caught within crisis areas;
- Support partners to tackle violence and build sustainable peace in the DRC;
- Support organisations and initiatives on transformative change ensuring inclusive access to markets and ecological sensitive, sustainable livelihoods;
- Support partners to tackle gender inequalities and power imbalances.
After the war, we left our plots, our fields, our clothes, everything that we had, but the help of Christian Aid with its partner BOAD, our hope has been restored
In the DRC we work on…
Good governance
With our unique expertise in governance, we were involved in the last two elections in the DRC.
Our work included working with CSOs on civic electoral education, in training local electoral observers, and facilitating the presence of international observers with EURAC, a network of European organisations working on peace-building and democratisation in the Great Lakes region.
Our DRC programme has also developed valuable expertise in advocacy, which will enable us to achieve strong results in terms of conflict transformation.
Currently, major segments of society are excluded from decision-making bodies, despite the existence of constitutionally acknowledged rights, laws are unfair, and past elections have been fraudulent, leaving the majority voiceless.
Our aim is to increase government accountability and responsiveness to ensure the population participates in decision-making processes, leading to fair elections at all levels.
Humanitarian assistance
We aim to alleviate suffering and save the lives of those caught up within crisis areas through timely and effective humanitarian interventions.
We provide humanitarian assistance in the sectors of food security, NFI/shelter, protection and WASH.
Our interventions have a strong focus on enhancing resilience of people affected by crisis, through a participative vulnerability and capacity assessing (PVCA) approach with the communities.
From violence to peace
The DRC finds itself in a vicious cycle of violence, including a high level of sexual and gender-based violence.
Our projects aim to tackle the root causes of violence and to build sustainable peace, by focusing on youth as change agents and work with them to find alternatives to violence.
We fight structural violence and SGBV through approaches of positive masculinity and the creation of income generating activities for GBV survivors to enhance their economic independence.
Economic justice and access to markets
DRC is an agriculture focused society with very complicated access to lands and markets.
We aim to enhance the access to land, support agricultural economies and ecological sensitive sustainable livelihood through our training, which works with communities on ecological agriculture techniques to enhance agricultural production and facilitate access to markets.
Gender and inequality
Our aim is to educate communities to make self-determined choices, especially women and girls.
We ensure inclusiveness in all our interventions.
Key achievements
In DRC we work for profound change that eradicates the causes of poverty, striving to achieve equality, dignity and freedom for all, regardless of faith or nationality. We are revising our multi-year strategy.
Humanitarian Programme Plan (HPP)
Since 2012, we have implemented the HPP programme in the South Kivu province. The programme combines humanitarian, resilience, protection, and from violence to peace aspects.
Following the Participatory Vulnerability and Capacity Assessments (PVCA), communities have created community action plans of which activities are being implemented which enhance the capacity of communities to respond themselves to crises they face.
Activities include soap making, basket weaving, bread making and clothes making.
Positive masculinity
With our local partner CBCA, we pilot a positive masculinity approach in response to sexual and gender-based violence in North Kivu.
This includes training groups of men and women on positive masculinity, through joint discussions on several themes, including sharing household work.
Group members have reported a change in behaviour following the training and sensitisation sessions.
Contact us
Christian Aid DRC is based in Kinshasa. We also draw on the expertise of colleagues from other Christian Aid teams across Africa and the world, staff at Christian Aid’s UK headquarters, and INGO networks in DRC and beyond.
